St John Henry Newman: “Protestants, who now have ceased to confess the Son, began then by scoffing at the Mother”

St John Henry Newman reflected on the nature and scope of Marian devotion shortly before he took the final step to enter the Church. He poses the question whether the honors paid to Our Lady, which have grown out of devotion to her Son, do not in fact tend to weaken that devotion to Christ. A related question also presented itself: was it possible to so exalt a creature without withdrawing one's heart from the Creator?

Newman replied that the issue was to a large extent answered by the Fathers of Ephesus when they declared Our Lady to be the Theotokos, or Mother of God, 'in order to protect the doctrine of the Incarnation, and to preserve the faith of Catholics from a specious humanitarianism'. And he goes on to make the telling point that a survey of religious practice in Europe confirmed 'that it is not those religious Communions which are characterized by devotion to the Blessed Virgin that have ceased to adore her Eternal Son, but those very bodies which have renounced devotion to her'. (Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, September 1845)

For Newman, confessing that Mary is Deipara, or Bearer of God, is a doctrine which copper fastens St John's affirmation that 'the Word became flesh' (Jn 1:14), and protects it from any evasiveness or any possible misinterpretation:

'The Church and Satan agreed together in this, that Son and Mother went together; and the experience of three centuries has confirmed their testimony, for Catholics who have honored the Mother, still worship the Son, while Protestants, who now have ceased to confess the Son, began then by scoffing at the Mother'. (Discourses Addressed to Mixed Congregations)

Professor Leo Scheffczyk, the German theologian, takes up the point Newman raised about Mary as witness to the Incarnation. 'One cannot be surprised', he says, 'that the specifically Catholic faith regresses and atrophies precisely where the understanding of Mary as the highest witness to the Incarnation of God dwindles'.

Fr Thomas McGovern

Adapted from www.christendom-awake.org